Like this:

At the end of August last year, I reached a point where I couldn’t deal with what I saw and the reactions of people close to me. I decided to escape for a week and chose a country I don’t speak its language. Two days into the trip, my mobile was stolen and with it all the photos I took of the turbulent July and August events. Everything lost. But it only hit me later, this April when I realized that all messages with Bassem, especially during these two months, were lost with that phone. Snippets of political and personal discussions. And the most precious of all were his brief uplifting messages that he somehow sent at the right time, as if he knew what I needed to hear without us speaking for days or even weeks. These past weeks I realized his loss the only way I was sure it would hit me. Twice, for personal and work related problems, Bassem was the first to come to my mind. But before reaching out for the phone to get his advice, I realized he was gone.

The only thing that survived the stolen phone was this video, which I had downloaded immediately for some reason. Bassem had watched it and told me to post it. It’s of the Ramsis clashes/crackdown few days after the Rabaa dispersal. Tens were killed and MB supporters were trapped inside the Fatah Mosque overnight. Earlier that day, I briefly got caught up in the gunfire. Authorities then told those inside they would have a safe exit. Never mind that many were eventually arrested, but for the moments captured here, residents of the area decided to provide this safe exit. They wanted to protect those inside from their neighbors who have been beating up journalists and anyone looking like Brotherhood. The essence of the story here is that those people forming this passage loathed the Brotherhood and those inside, but their humanity won over their affiliation. Call it even practical and logical thinking. They decided to unexpectedly break the cycle of violence for no reason other than being fed up with blood. This realization is the key to solving our problems. This video gives me hope that this realization could one day prevail. What people told me that day always reminds me of Bassem. Since his funeral, I’ve been asking myself in many occasions, what would Bassem do. And this video captures his spirit even though he had nothing to do with it, a spirit I wish would prevail. So here you go, get some hope during the anniversary of a bloodied week as I plan my next escape.

Share this:

Like this:

In two weeks, it will be the anniversary of one of the worst days in Egypt’s modern history. In addition to the hundreds that were killed on that single day, Aug. 14, and hundreds more in following days and months, many friends and colleagues had close calls. It’s the anniversary of when many of us, myself included, narrowly escaped death. The sight and sound of whizzing bullets is still very much alive. A lot has happened since, here and in the region. And it only made the idea of death much more real. It has become a constant possibility with the name of every fallen journalist/colleague, when seeing the scars and implications of gunfire injuries still visible a year later, and especially when every morning starts by checking that friends covering war zones are still alive. I’ve been bracing for the worst for more than year, but more so ahead of these two weeks. And the passing of a dear friend this year was a reminder that death isn’t only tied to danger or certain jobs. This is not meant to be as bleak as it sounds; this realization of death has translated into an attempt to enjoy life as much as fearing its loss and it often comes with an urge to always tie up all loose ends.

Cairo (CNN) — Three Al Jazeera journalists were among eight who appeared at a hearing in a Cairo prison court Thursday, accused along with 17 other defendants of spreading “false news” and having links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt declared a terrorist organization in December.

“Tell her I love her. Big wedding when I get out,” Al Jazeera English journalist Mohamed Fahmy told journalists in a message to his fiancee, appearing in high spirits on the first day of his trial, despite a worsening shoulder injury.

(CNN) — Deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy on Sunday taunted court officials who placed him in a soundproof glass box during his trial on conspiracy charges, a proceeding cut short by his lawyers’ objections.

“If this farce continues, leave the trial,” Morsy told his lawyers through a microphone. “Those who are afraid of my appearance before the people have no public support,” he added.

Standing in a soundproof glass cage, deposed President Mohamed Morsi made his second public appearance since his July ouster on Tuesday in the first session of what his lawyers described as a “show trial.”

Along with 130 others, Morsi is charged with helping to facilitate a mass prison break from the Wadi Natroun prison in January 2011, where he himself had been incarcerated.

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — As Egypt marked the third anniversary of the January 25 revolution, many of the activists associated with it were behind bars, awaiting trial, or facing a vilification campaign that turned heroes into traitors.

Meanwhile, the police whose brutal force stoked their anger three years ago vowed to protect the weekend celebrations.

Officials from the mobile phone operator Vodafone were questioned last week by Egypt’s public prosecutor about coded messages allegedly hidden in one of their online ads. The video, said to contain a secret message for terrorists, features internet sensation Abla Fahita, a puppet who rose to fame mocking Egyptian housewives who use the internet as their source of recipes and gossip.

The Prosecutor General saw that the report, filed by a wannabe singer and fame-seeking conspiracy theorist Ahmed “Sbyder,” was worthy of investigation and questioning. The prosecution didn’t ignore it like other complaints, including an earlier request for an investigation into how a TV anchor acquired and aired recordings of activists’ phone calls.

The sight of blood and charred debris, the screams of loss and pain and the rising death toll often leave people speechless, unable to comprehend a thought.

The state of shock swiftly turns into hysteric consensus over any idea that appeals to the crowd or part of it. Probing questions are quieted or dismissed as preposterous.

Declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, even though a court is still to give a verdict to that effect, caters to this reaction and helps in distracting from the unpopular type of criticism directed at the government.

As the deadly crackdown on the Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins by supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi was coming to an end on August 14, word spread that a photographer called Mosa’ab Elshamy was killed. It wasn’t long before the 23-year-old photographer assured his friends and colleagues that it was another Alexandria photographer by the same name who had been killed at the same Rabaa al-Adawya square where he was taking photos. The relief was soon replaced by the realization that another set of strangers were mourning the loss of their friend. This type of tragedy and conflict is what Elshamy is skillful at documenting.

Also watch Christiane Amanpour’s interview with Alaa Eldin Ezzat, whose daughter Ola was sentenced to 11 years in jail.

Egypt’s old and new battle over revolutionary discourse – Al Monitor, Nov. 21

CAIRO — On the evening of Nov. 18, Helmy al-Sayed carried a placard that almost got him kicked out of a march in downtown Cairo. The words on it and the ensuing argument represented the type of problems march organizers wanted to avoid by holding it a day before the second anniversary of the Mohamed Mahmoud Street clashes and away from other events planned by opposing groups.

Cairo – Walls. Walls. Walls. The geography of Cairo’s traffic has been gravely altered by the cement walls blocking streets to the Ministry of Interior, the cabinet and the parliament, all in close proximity, in addition to other facilities in central Cairo.

CAIRO — DURING a court recess on Monday, I approached the floor-to-ceiling, webbed-metal cage confining Mohamed Morsi, the deposed president of Egypt, and seven other defendants.

I sneaked a peek past a security guard. Mr. Morsi stood surrounded by his former aides and fellow defendants from the Muslim Brotherhood. They were dressed in white garments, as required by the authorities. He wore a blue business suit.

Cairo – Bassem Youssef was facing a challenge in the build-up to the first episode of “al-Bernameg” following a four-month hiatus. Opposed to common belief, it wasn’t an issue of lack of material after Mohamed Mursi and Islamist TV channels disappeared from the scene. It was Youssef’s own audience, those who had avidly cheered and defended his painful mockery of Mursi and co. Now that they are supporting the state and status quo, and, like their Islamist counterparts, nodding to TV channels whose content is rich in material for Youssef’s show, the joke essentially would be on them.

CAIRO — Posters of Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi outnumbered all other trinkets sold or distributed during the street celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the October 1973 War. The day turned into “Sisi Fest,” rather than a celebration of Egypt’s armed forces, during which a campaign for the general’s presidency found large numbers of supporters.

Cairo – Most Fridays, state-owned and private radio channels blast a single genre of music all day long: national and patriotic tunes. Instead of around-the-clock political analysis on the weekend or airing songs that might be insensitive to whatever is going on, a growing library of classic and contemporary national songs has been providing a safe programming choice since the January 25 uprising made Friday the day of protests.

Like this:

This type of articles (The Case Against the Global Novel -By Pankaj Mishra) reminds me that the political analyses that comprises most of my reading material has –for the sake of clarity and presenting well-argued cases under the 700-1000 word limit — fallen in the trap of over simplification. Even the more sophisticated articles we read (and write) follow the traditional structure focusing on a single thread aimed at a conclusion. The layering of thoughts and ideas that often raise questions more than providing answers would be easily labeled as unclear and jumbled. In some cases, that could be true. But most writings available now lack the vigor that stimulates the mind beyond the obvious. This is not to say that the attached article is perfect. The writer’s choice of accumulating examples threw me off at times. It could be me accustomed to the traditional structure or maybe due to actual, but tiny, lapses in presenting the argument. Still, the language and the type of writing is more thought-provoking and inspiring than material available for daily consumption, even by my favorite writers. Sometimes lucid writing is not the best, but some wandering of the mind is required as well.

**While reading, check this nod to literature’s role in pushing societies to conform to “traditions”, “realities” and “ideas” that don’t really exist except in their imagination or perception of how everyone else acts.

In many of the new nations that emerged in the 20th century, literary fictionists were often expected to supply the myths and legends that an insufficiently imagined community needed in order to become cohesive and coherent. The Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk complains that when he decided to become a writer “literature was allied to the future: its job was to work hand in hand with the state to build a happy and harmonious society, or even nation”.